“As a fun fact, I originally started my career at Dynaset by assembling welding generators, just like my father, Reijo,” Karppinen says. “Still, it wasn’t my intention to create a career here. I thought that this was too ‘engineering’ for me.” Indeed, during an internship, Karppinen regular visited Dynaset’s technical director’s office to ask questions about technology. It didn’t take her long to decide that perhaps she’d found a place to build a career after all. “Our team and customers were the primary motivators that made me stay at Dynaset,” Karppinen says. “They have given me many exciting challenges to overcome and opportunities to try and learn new things.”

Starting in PR and sales

As time went by, Karppinen’s responsibilities expanded to event planning and acting as a technical salesperson at trade shows in Finland; hardly an easy task given the nature of the male dominated industry at the time. Thankfully, foreign expos and customers were a different story and came to appreciate her know-how. She also earned an MBA in international business, providing valuable expertise as the company sought to expand its sales globally. In 2012, Karppinen became Dynaset’s sales manager, a role for which she was essentially ‘nominated’ for by the company’s sales team. She became executive vice president in 2018 and, four years later, mother to a daughter.

“I was surprised by how much the change in position changed my daily tasks and attitudes toward me even though most of these recurring tasks had been in my schedule before the new job,” she says. “I’m grateful for how well our team has supported the change and me. The support has been essential to combine motherhood and management positions. In my current position, I get to be involved in many interesting things, which cut through all of our operations at Dynaset, and all aim to satisfy customers.”

Karppinen believes trust, clear goals, and vision will help the team grow. “We have excellent values and a fantastic team and want to be developing in the long run,” she says. “Each Dynaset team member is essential and valuable to us. I provide support to each team member as much as needed ensuring our journey toward our vision.” At the same time, Karppinen says Dynaset must maintain its culture and team spirit as the company grows. “I firmly believe that the best workplace is built together,” she says. “We have a team filled with talent in each department, our company just needs to provide all the needed resources.”

www.dynaset.com